Albert Belle

An Interesting Case

Belle was a great player at his peak whose career was on a Cooperstown
trajectory until it was tragically cut short due to a medical condition
basically unrelated to baseball playing. Sound familiar? Do you feel a
sympathy vote coming on? Anyone think he'll get the same Hall of Fame
consideration as the ever-popular Kirby Puckett?

The nod goes to Puckett on career value, while Belle is better on peak
value. So is Kirby's smile the difference between the Hall and not?

Points in Puckett's favor:

Puckett's Twins won the World Series twice.

Belle took the Indians to the World Series for the first time since the
last Ice Age. Of course, they didn't win, but he was an integral part of
the Cleveland dynasty of the mid-1990s. He posted a 954 post-season OPS,
including a 1046 OPS in his only World Series.

Kirby still has a big edge here, though.

Puckett played a more important defensive position, and won several
Gold Gloves in the process.

True, though there are doubts on the sabermetric side as to whether he was
really that good. Belle's range factors were somewhat above average until
late in his career, but he was never a center fielder.

Puckett didn't play in the high-offense era of the late 1990s.

Puckett did play only three years in the post-expansion offensive
environment. However, Puckett played in better hitters' parks than Belle
did, which narrows the gap a tad.

Also consider that Belle was hurt by the two shortened seasons in the
mid-90s, seasons that happened to be his best two years (not unexpectedly,
at ages 27 and 28).

Puckett may still have an overall edge, but it hardly seems like the gap
between a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a career that will likely garner
virtually no support among the HOF voters.

Start with the offensive dominance. Leading the league in RBI three times,
along with a 152-RBI second-place finish; nine straight years of 100+ RBI,
in the top 100 career RBI totals, and 381 home runs (#43 all-time). He was
also surprisingly durable in the 1992-99 time frame (by my calculations, he
missed just 23 games in eight years).

And while he did get some extra press attention for his 50/50 season in
1995, he lost the MVP he deserved to Mo Vaughn (who was then
immensely popular).

Turning to more statistical arguments:

The retired players in his top 10 similarity scores list are Ralph
Kiner (in the Hall), Hank Greenberg (in the Hall), Dick
Allen (not in the Hall), and Rocky Colavito (not in the Hall).
Of the active players on the comps list, Frank Thomas, Jeff
Bagwell, Ken Griffey Jr., and Sammy Sosa are all good
bets to make the Hall, and a rebound from Juan Gonzalez could land
him in Cooperstown as well. The tenth comp is Ellis Burks, who owes
part of the similarity to Coors Field, and is an unlikely inductee.

On the sabermetric side, his career VORP of about 565 runs above
replacement level for his career puts him around #85 all-time among
position players. Players with comparable career value include Duke
Snider, Bobby Grich, Joe Torre, Johnny Bench,
Mickey Cochrane, Billy Williams, and Joe Medwick. By
comparison, he's well ahead of Jim Rice, who continues to gather a
good measure of Hall support (though he hasn't been elected yet). Belle is
within shouting distance (if you prorated 1994-95 to full seasons, he'd be
there) of Ernie Banks, Harmon Killebrew, Carlton Fisk,
Johnny Mize, Willie Stargell, and Roberto Clemente.

His MLVr (VORP's equivalent of OPS, league/park adjusted rate of offensive
production) is comparable to Sam Thompson, Frank Robinson,
Dick Allen, Hack Wilson, and Nap Lajoie. Even after adjusting
for his era, Belle has been a heck of a hitter.

Dick Allen seems to be the best comp, both in rate of production, length of
career, and negative reputation (which may have also kept Allen from being
elected). Ralph Kiner or Hank Greenberg would probably be the best comps
for overall value and shape of a career that actually got elected to the Hall.

I tend to think that if Belle had been a popular, beloved player with the
exact same career performance, he'd be voted into the Hall easily.

Keith Woolner is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Contact him by
clicking here.

Keith Woolner is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Click here to see Keith's other articles.
You can contact Keith by clicking here